


Election Day

by mavjade



Series: Descendents [3]
Category: The West Wing
Genre: Cute Kids, F/M, Fluff, Future Fic, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-24
Updated: 2017-02-24
Packaged: 2018-09-26 13:43:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9900737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mavjade/pseuds/mavjade
Summary: Josh loves Election Day, it’s his favorite holiday, but elections in the past hasn’t been so kind to him. Will he let the stress get to him, or will he learn to enjoy life as it comes.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is part of the Life and Times 'verse, but is a prequel to He'll Know They Stood Up (It's Time to Consider Yourself), and The Life and Times of Leo Lyman. You don't have to have read those to understand this one, but it might give you a bit more insight. 
> 
> Takes place 12-ish years post show.

 

Josh rolled over and put his arm around his wife’s waist, pulling her to him and snuggled his face into her hair.  
  
“Good morning,” she whispered. “Happy Election Day.”  
  
Josh blew out a breath, “Yeah…”  
  
Donna rolled over, to look at her husband’s face. She could barely see it by the street light that was outside, but she could see his eyebrows furrowed with worry. She slid her hand onto his cheek and rubbed her thumb back and forth. “What is it? You love Election Day.”  
  
Josh nodded. She was right, it was usually his favorite day. It was an especially exciting day when he had a candidate in the race. This year, his best friend was running for President, and if all the polls were correct, they were going to win. Of course, Josh would never say that out loud; it was tempting fate to say you’d won something before it had actually happened. Most of the polls were within the margin of error, so he was tentative about believing them.  
  
“It’s just-” he paused trying to gather his thoughts. “My dad, Leo…”  
  
“Your worried something’s going to happen to someone?”  
  
“Yeah. I know it’s stupid-“  
  
“It’s not,” Donna interjected. It wasn’t stupid, Josh’s father had died the night the future President Bartlet won the Illinois primary, and Leo McGarry, a father figure to Josh died on the day he would have become Vice-President.  
  
“-But it sometimes feels like elections are cursed for me.”  
  
Donna smiled sadly, “I know, but I have a good feeling about today. Today is going to be an amazing day.”  
  
“Shh…” Josh put a finger on her lips. “You are close to tempting the wrath of the whatever from high atop the thing.”  
  
Donna laughed. Apparently, Toby had muttered that exact phrase years ago, and it became the go to for the entire Bartlet gang. “Well no matter what happens today,” she said soberly, “I’m here.”  
  
Josh smiled, “I know. Thank you.” He leaned in and kissed her deeply. They still had a little while before they had to be up and he wanted to take advantage of it. The last nine months of campaigning had been long, and he had missed mornings of being with just each other before the kids got up.  
  
Donna had brought the kids to see him as frequently has she could while he was out trying to make Sam President, but between her own job, Leo’s school, and taking care of twin five-year-olds, it didn't happen as much as he would have liked.  
  
Josh was running his hand down her arm and onto her hip when their bedroom door opened and the sound of little feet running interrupted. Soon, two small children were laying on top of him. Josh was quite glad their morning hadn’t gotten any further than some light kissing.  
  
“Daddy!” Abi squealed as she flopped onto Josh’s chest. “You stay home now?”  
  
Josh pulled her up to lay between him and Donna, with his arm protectively around his daughter. “Yes, baby, Daddy’s going to be home now.”  
  
“Yay!” Noah said as he snuggled under Josh’s other arm. “I missed you, daddy.”  
  
Josh smiled and kissed each of the twins on the head. “I missed you guys too.” He was glad the campaign was over, he’d missed too much. He loved his job, and he felt proud of the work he’d done, but as he looked at his children, he knew this would be the last campaign he’d run. Josh knew he was getting too old to run on energy drinks and sugar for days on end. His doctor wasn’t very happy with him at the moment, he’d warned that Josh couldn’t live that life for much longer unless he wanted it to cost him everything.  
  
“This is what’s important,” he said as he looked up from two of his children at his wife. “No matter what happens today. This is my life.”  
  
  
~*~*~  
  
It was around ten at night at the Seaborn for President headquarters in Washington DC. Josh and Donna were sitting together on a couch in Josh’s office letting the noise of the room outside wash over them. Everyone was busy trying to find out if they had the final few electoral college votes they would need to take them past the 270 and win the election.  
  
In the past, Josh would have been right there with them, calling everyone he knew, reading every piece of paper that crossed in front of him. Checking the math over and over, calculating what they would need if they were to somehow lose Nevada or New Mexico. He would have been stressed out of his mind. He was stressed, but not in a pace around the room and make everyone nervous kind of way. He knew he’d done all he could do and he was content with that.  
  
“Do you think Leo will be mad for long?” Donna asked breaking into Josh’s musings. They had gotten a babysitter for this night months ago. They knew it would be a long night and they’d want to be with the Seaborn’s and the entire campaign staff. Their oldest son had wanted to come with them, but they didn’t know how late it would be and he would have school the next day.  
  
Josh shook his head, “I think he just wanted to do something without the twins. We can make it up to him this weekend, and he’ll be fine.”  
  
The room outside suddenly got very quiet. _“And we’re now ready to call it,”_ Anderson Cooper could be heard on the TV in the background. Josh and Donna got up and walked out of his office to stand with everyone else. _“Samuel Seaborn will be the next president of the United States.”_  
  
Cheers erupted in the room, champagne corks popped and people began to drink. Donna threw her arms around her husband. “Congratulations!”  
  
Josh leaned back from the hug and kissed her. Their first kiss had been during an election, and he noted in his head that this one was so much better. So many years of knowing each other and being intimate, he knew he could put all of his love and excitement into that kiss.  
  
A few moments later Josh pulled back and turned to see if he could find Sam. He saw him walking his direction and went to meet him half way. “Congratulations Mister President,” Josh said as he hugged his best friend. He could see Donna hugging Ainsley out of the corner of his eye.  
  
“Thank you, Josh,” Sam said. “I couldn’t have… wouldn’t have done it without you.”  
  
Josh moved back and let all the other people congratulate the President-Elect, and he walked back over to Donna with two champagne flutes in his hand.  
  
Donna took one of them and raised it toward him. “Happy Election Day,” she said.  
  
Josh clinked his flute against her’s, “Happy Election Day, my love.”

 

_~fin_

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for the OPT Holiday Challenge over at the JCF. It could be any holiday and I wanted to go with something more obscure than the winter holidays or Valentine's Day so I figured Josh would love Election Day, even if it's technically not a holiday. :p


End file.
